Simplify Your Holidays and Celebrate the Season!

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Christmas Countdown Day 15: Gifts and Giving Week!

November 4, 2018 by Cynthia Ewer

For many families, gift-giving is among the most stressful aspects of preparing for the holiday season. Wonderful as the tradition can be, it has another side: where the rubber of our budget meets the road of our expectations.

Anxieties abound! Will our gifts be enough? Will we send the right message? Can we afford them? Will we find the year's hot toy ... or should we even try to look for it?

There's another, brighter side to gift-giving. Reading assignments this week will help us draw closer to the true meaning of the holiday season. Today's essay, In Praise of Simple Gifts, is intended to get us off to a good start, reminding us that holiday gifts and holiday giving are only pale reflections of the true gift of the season.

Ready? It's time to take on the gift list and get ready for Christmas with Gifts and Giving Week!

To Do This Week

To Do Today

Check home preparedness on Time Change Sunday

The end of Daylight Saving Time brings a welcome extra hour to our day; will you use it to assess home preparedness as we move into winter? As you set back the clocks, check smoke detectors, change lightbulbs, review readiness for cold and flu season and assess your household's emergency plan.

Get going on gift lists

During Get Organized week, we made a start with a Master Gift List; now it's time to flesh it out with more specialized lists to organize gift shopping.

Get those printers humming! During Gifts and Giving week, we'll spin off other lists:

A Gifts to Make list will keep us on track handmade holiday gifts. No more late-night sewing sessions on Christmas Eve!

Fill holiday stockings with items from the Stocking Stuffers list. A get-organized tip: store stocking stuffers in department store shopping bags (with handles) hung from clothes hangers. Write the recipient's name on the front, and hang the bags deep in the clothes closet.